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Erech



 
 
Erech (Hebrew name ???, meaning 'to extract, or draw out') was an ancient city in the land of Shinar
Shinar

Shinar is a broad designation applied to Mesopotamia, occurring eight times in the Hebrew Bible. Possible derivations from Semitic that have been suggested include Shene nahar "two rivers" and Shene or "two cities", but neither is certain....
, the second city built by king Nimrod
Nimrod

Nimrod means "Hunter"; was a Biblical Mesopotamian king mentioned in the Table of Nations. The term Nimrod when vague or general is applied to the means of hunter, normally to a person....
 (later Amraphel) after the destruction of the Tower of Babel
Tower of Babel

The Tower of Babel according to chapter 11 of the Book of Genesis, was an enormous tower built at the city of Babel, the Hebrew name for Babylon ....
. The Book of Jasher
Sefer haYashar (midrash)

Sefer haYashar , a Hebrew language midrash known in English translation mostly as The Book of Jasher. The book is named after the Sefer HaYashar mentioned in Book of Joshua and 2 books of Samuel....
 11:3 records that this city was built in the place where God deported people of various new language groups to different parts of the world, and Nimrod therefore named the city Erech.

Although the exact location of Erech is not specified with any accuracy, the Book of Jubilees
Jubilees

The Book of Jubilees , sometimes called the Lesser Genesis , is an ancient Jewish religious work, considered one of the Pseudepigrapha by most Protestant, Roman Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox Christians....
 9:3 identifies that the land of Shinar was allocated to Asshur, second son of Shem, and these Kings are associated with Nineveh
Nineveh

Nineveh , an "exceeding great city", as it is called in the Book of Jonah, lay on the eastern bank of the Tigris in ancient Assyria, across the river from the modern-day major city of Mosul, Iraq....
 in the northern part of Mesopotamia.

The Sumerian Kings List is the primary source indicating that Erech was a name for the southern city of Uruk
Uruk

Uruk , from the Akkadian rendering of the Sumerian toponym 'unug', is modern Warka , Iraq. Uruk was an ancient city of Sumer and later Babylonia, situated east of the present bed of the Euphrates river, on the ancient Nil canal, some 30 km east of As-Samawah, Al Muthanna Governorate, Iraq....
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Erech (Hebrew name ???, meaning 'to extract, or draw out') was an ancient city in the land of Shinar
Shinar

Shinar is a broad designation applied to Mesopotamia, occurring eight times in the Hebrew Bible. Possible derivations from Semitic that have been suggested include Shene nahar "two rivers" and Shene or "two cities", but neither is certain....
, the second city built by king Nimrod
Nimrod

Nimrod means "Hunter"; was a Biblical Mesopotamian king mentioned in the Table of Nations. The term Nimrod when vague or general is applied to the means of hunter, normally to a person....
 (later Amraphel) after the destruction of the Tower of Babel
Tower of Babel

The Tower of Babel according to chapter 11 of the Book of Genesis, was an enormous tower built at the city of Babel, the Hebrew name for Babylon ....
. The Book of Jasher
Sefer haYashar (midrash)

Sefer haYashar , a Hebrew language midrash known in English translation mostly as The Book of Jasher. The book is named after the Sefer HaYashar mentioned in Book of Joshua and 2 books of Samuel....
 11:3 records that this city was built in the place where God deported people of various new language groups to different parts of the world, and Nimrod therefore named the city Erech.

Although the exact location of Erech is not specified with any accuracy, the Book of Jubilees
Jubilees

The Book of Jubilees , sometimes called the Lesser Genesis , is an ancient Jewish religious work, considered one of the Pseudepigrapha by most Protestant, Roman Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox Christians....
 9:3 identifies that the land of Shinar was allocated to Asshur, second son of Shem, and these Kings are associated with Nineveh
Nineveh

Nineveh , an "exceeding great city", as it is called in the Book of Jonah, lay on the eastern bank of the Tigris in ancient Assyria, across the river from the modern-day major city of Mosul, Iraq....
 in the northern part of Mesopotamia.

The Sumerian Kings List is the primary source indicating that Erech was a name for the southern city of Uruk
Uruk

Uruk , from the Akkadian rendering of the Sumerian toponym 'unug', is modern Warka , Iraq. Uruk was an ancient city of Sumer and later Babylonia, situated east of the present bed of the Euphrates river, on the ancient Nil canal, some 30 km east of As-Samawah, Al Muthanna Governorate, Iraq....
. The cuneiform
Cuneiform

Cuneiform can refer to:*Cuneiform script, an ancient writing system originating in Mesopotamia in the 4th millennium BC*Cuneiform , three bones in the human foot...
 tablets were found by Lenzen in 1954 at Uruk. The Early Dynastic period in the list runs from 2900 to 2370BC, and is the first series in the Kings List with realistic dates for the lengths of the rule of Kings. Prior to this the Kings list shows only mythical kings who reigned for millennia . The Early Dynastic period starts with the first Kish dynasty north of Uruk, before the 'Dynasty of Erech' was founded in Uruk by Meskia-gasher. This was the period of the famous Gilgamesh
Gilgamesh

Gilgamesh also known as Bilgames in the earliest text , was the son of Lugalbanda and the fifth king of Uruk , ruling circa 2700 BC, according to the Sumerian king list....
, whose legend is so strongly associated with Uruk. This would indicate that the influence of Asshur and King Nimrod extended across the whole area, both northern and southern Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia

Mesopotamia is the area of the Tigris-Euphrates river system, along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, largely corresponding to modern Iraq, as well as some parts of northeastern Syria, some parts of southeastern Turkey, and some parts of the Khuzestan Province of southwestern Iran....
.

Uruk is the Akkad
Akkad

The Akkadian Empire was an empire centered in the city of Akkad Sumerian language: Agade KUR A.GA.D?KI "land of Akkad". ; Biblical Accad) and its surrounding region Akkadian URU Akkad KI in central Mesopotamia....
ian version of the city’s name and is found on cuneiform tablets discovered in the northern sites of Kish, Nineveh and Babylon, mostly referring the conquest of the southern region by the Babylon
Babylon

Babylon was a city-state of ancient Mesopotamia, sometimes considered an empire, the remains of which can be found in present-day Al Hillah, Babil Governorate, Iraq, about 85 kilometers south of Baghdad....
ian king Sargon I
Sargon I

Sargon I was a king of the old-Assyrian Kingdom and reigned from ca. 1920 BC-1881 BC....
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